Airing It Out
by Leaded-Pegasus
Summary: Just a string of Percy/Annabeth moments on the Argo II. Some are serious and angsty, and one is a little more light-hearted. Post HoH-don't read if you haven't picked it up yet. And, of course, Happy Halloween!


**A/N: This isn't really Halloween-y, but I thought I would try and get something posted for you guys, anyway. One thing it is, though: Angsty. But don't worry, it gets a little...Happier, per say, towards the end. But anyway, enjoy, and Happy Halloween!  
**

* * *

Airing It Out

Percy gripped the helm of the Argo II, turning it slightly to the left or right on occasions. It was an absentminded task, steering the ship. While Leo was a decent quote-on-quote "Captain," it took a much greater effort staying on course. But for Percy, it was so easy, he could probably do it in his sleep. Still, it wasn't the most interesting job to do on the Argo II, but someone had to do it.

Percy stifled a yawn as he brought a hand up to his mouth. He wondered what time it was, and glanced up at the sky. The stars still glittered up above, but all the while, the sky had turned a lighter shade of blue. The sun would be up soon enough. Percy hastily ran his hands up and down his arms with a shiver. While his hoodie could keep him pretty warm, the breeze cut right through it. It could get cold at night, especially sailing over the ocean.

He brought his hands up to the helm to turn it slightly to the right a little, before quickly retracting them back into the pocket of his hoodie.

"Gods," He complained, "You think it could get any colder?"

Percy yawned a second time, yearning to be below deck, asleep. After being stuck in Tartarus, there had been a lot of things that he had nearly forgotten came with, well, not being stuck in Tartarus. After all, he had been more focused on keeping him and Annabeth alive more than he had been concerned about sleeping in a bed, or sleeping at all. That, along with being able to breathe fresh air over the thick, sulphuric air that was in Tartarus. Or being able to drink clean water over the disgusting fire water.

But he supposed that the best thing about no longer being in Tartarus was not having to worry about Annabeth getting hurt, or worse. Well, he still had to worry, but not even entirely as much as he had to in Tartarus, where just about everything and anything was out to kill you. They had both had their fair share of close calls, and just thinking about it made Percy shudder. But it was over, they were safe...For now. There was still a war to fight.

He hated himself for imagining it, but what if one or more of them didn't make it? Percy didn't just imagine himself or Annabeth perishing in the war, but the rest of the group, as well. Jason, Hazel, Frank, Piper, Leo, Reyna, Nico, Hedge-all of their lives were at stake. He couldn't imagine any of them getting killed-he would be devastated.

But above all, he couldn't imagine Annabeth getting killed. Percy had almost lost her in Tartarus, not just once, but several times. After having gone through so much with her over the past years, Percy would be miserable with grief if she died now. He loved her-And he couldn't let her slip from him, as so many people had. Percy tried not to think about it, thinking so negatively could bring anyone down. Instead, he tried to imagine his life after the war. Maybe, just maybe, the two of them, being Annabeth and himself, could live in New Rome, where they wouldn't have to worry about the threats and dangers of the outside world. It sounded nice, after having to practically fight for his life every minute of the day since he was twelve.

"You look like you're ready to freeze," A voice remarked a few feet behind him. Percy jumped at his place by the helm, before turning to face the intruder. Jason stood a few wary feet away, clad in pajamas and his own hoodie.

"Dude, you've gotta give me a little head's up if you're going to sneak up on me."

Jason grimaced, "Sorry. I wasn't trying to scare you, I was just going to offer that we could switch shifts. You need your sleep more than I do."

Percy waved him away, "I'm fine. I think we're all on the same page when it comes to exhaustion."

Jason shrugged, "If you say so, but I'm not moving until you at least give up the helm."

"Alright," Percy grumbled, as he sidestepped from the wheel. Jason, in turn, took it, and began to awkwardly steer, but after a few minutes, got the hang of it.

"You know, I've been thinking about what's going to happen to all of us, after this war with Gaea. Wondering who's going to make it...Who's not." Jason began, "I hate thinking about it, but I'll hate myself even more if I let anyone get killed."

Percy hummed in agreement, "Same here."

He didn't say anymore than that, because in all honesty, he didn't want to have this conversation with Jason. It bothered him enough thinking about it, but sounding his thoughts would break him.

Jason glanced up, staring at the horizon, "You know, this is probably selfish, or it is selfish of me to think, but I've wondered who the one person would be that I would save if it came down to it."

"Piper?" Percy guessed.

Jason stared at his feet in shame with a nod.

"Hey, if I had to save one person, I'd pick Annabeth," Percy stated, "But...It won't come down to that, Jason. All of us, we stick up for each other. If one of us goes down, then the rest of us will pick them up. And if we're all screwed, then we're going to go down with a fight."

After a moment, Jason nodded once, "I hope you're right Percy."

"I hope I'm right too, man," Percy muttered, "But I think I'm going to take your offer up on switching shifts."

"Good idea," Jason encouraged, "But don't worry about me, I think I've finally got the hang of this sailing thing, maybe even better than you.."

Percy let himself smirk a little, "Yeah, keep telling yourself that. Maybe after this whole thing with Gaea has blown over, we can have a little race."

"You're on."

* * *

Percy jogged down the steps that led below deck, where he instantly felt the heat begin to defrost him. He stumbled into his room, and found that it was exactly as how he left it: A mess. But he was practically in his own element now, with clothing both clean and dirty strewn about everywhere, his trashbin overflowing with trash. He toppled onto his unkempt bed, not even bothering to crawl under the sheets. Percy tucked his pillow into the crook of his neck, before settling down. He slowly drifted off, ignoring the fact that nightmares would soon take his sleep.

_"Choose, Son of Poseidon. Who will you spare from a painful death for a quicker one?" Gaea's gravelly voice cooed as she regarded the six people lined against a stone, all with their arms and legs bound together. All of them: Annabeth, Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel, Leo, all of them cried his name, pleading, imploring him to pick them._

_"I am being merciful, Perseus Jackson. Now choose, before I rethink my kind desicion."_

_Percy's eyes darted wildly at their faces. Who would he save? But before he could utter a name, Gaea hissed in rage,_

_"Fool! My patience has been worn, and now, all of you will suffer from your friend's inability to make a simple decision!"_

_All of them wailed in misery._

_Finally, Percy braved himself to say something, "Gaea!"_

_She regarded him with her cold, lifeless eyes, "So, he finally speaks. But unfortunately, you chose to speak a moment too late."_

_"I won't choose," Percy snarled, "A choice like this is more cruel than all of us dying a slow and agonizing death. If we're all going down, then we're going down with a fight."_

_Gaea merely sneered, "Oh, but you're wrong, Perseus. Look at your friends now, do they look like they're in any shape to be fighting me, Mother Earth?"_

_Percy dared himself to look back at his friends, but screamed at the sight that awaited him. A group of bare skeletons now lined the stones, in place of his friends. A violent dust storm swirled around him, kicking dirt into his eyes, until his vision went black._

_"Percy!" Annabeth's voice called desperately._

"Percy!"

He gasped at the sound of his name, and when his eyes fluttered open, he found Annabeth staring fiercely at him. Her face suddenly melted from it's fiery one, only to be replaced with a look of concern,

"You were having a nightmare. I heard you screaming from across the hall." She muttered, as she crouched down beside him. Annabeth brushed a strand of hair from his face.

"Yeah...Don't worry about it," He quickly replied, "What time is it?"

"Almost eleven."

Percy sat up, pecking her forehead with a kiss, "Sorry if I woke you up."

"Don't worry about it. I was having nightmares of my own," She admitted, glancing away, "I'm kind of glad you woke me up."

"Do you want to talk about it?" He questioned, "You know, your nightmares?"

She shook her head after a moment, "No. Not yet anyway. What about you?"

Percy shook his own head, "No."

He put his legs over the side of the bed and moved over, making room for Annabeth. She took a seat beside him, burying her face in the front of his sweatshirt.

"I'm so glad we're safe," He muffled voice said, "I'm so glad you're safe."

Percy instantly pulled her closer, running a reassuring hand up and down her back.

"I'm glad you're safe, too," He answered, "I thought I was going to lose you a few times. I...I would never be able to forgive myself if I had let that happen."

Her body trembled with sobs as she cried into Percy's chest. His own eyes nipped with tears, as the emotional toll that Tartarus had taken on him finally registered. She pulled herself deeper into the front of Percy's hoodie in an attempt to staunch the sound of her crying.

"Say everything is going to be all right," She nearly begged as she stared up at Percy. Her eyes were rimmed with red from crying,

"Annabeth…" He sighed. She brushed a finger across his cheek, hastily swiping a tear that had fallen from his own eye.

"Please." Her sobs picked up again, and once more, she put her face into Percy's hoodie. He wrapped his arms around her tighter as he rested his chin on top of her head. Percy yearned that he could say it, say that everything would be all right, and that it would be true. But there were a lot of things he was wishing for. He wished that they were sailing home, not to their deaths. He wished that he could live a normal life with Annabeth, not one filled with pain, suffering, and sadness. It wouldn't be all right, and deep down he felt that everyone in the group knew that,

"Everything-" He faltered, "Everything is going to be all right."

Her breaths shuddered a few times as she tried to get her breath under control. And after a few minutes, she fell silent again, while she still kept her face pressed into his chest. His room settled with silence once more, with nothing but the sound of the waves lapping up against the side of the ship to listen to. Her voice muffled voice said,

"That's the first time I've seen you cry."

"Yeah...I guess it is," He replied.

* * *

Percy dragged a huge hamper of his dampened laundry from below deck. Since it had been a mostly peaceful day, void of any attacks, they had all decided that they would take advantage of it. That meant doing chores, but by now, Percy would be happy doing laundry over fighting something. He looked for a free line of tethered ropes that he could hang his laundry up on. He glanced around with a smirk at the rest of the laundry hanging up. While they all had a unique type of intimacy that only the best of friends had, it was still odd what some of them had for undergarments. Especially when they were blowing in the wind, almost dramatically so.

He shook his hamper upside down, as his clothing spilled out onto the deck. Percy scooped up the first T-Shirt that caught his eye, and clipped it onto the rope above his head with a few laundry clips that he had with him. Percy examined it slightly, to see if it would get him any teasing from the others. Not that he really cared, they were just poking fun, but still. It was a plain, navy blue tee-nothing wrong with that. But he knew he had more embarrassing things in his pile of laundry. He pawed around for the said embarrassing things, and frowned when he caught a pair of panda-print boxers.

"Hey, Percy!" Leo's voiced called gleefully from the helm.

He turned, with the feeling that Leo had seen them.

"How did Frank get onto your boxers?" He called.

"Well, let's see what you've got to show for embarrassing underwear, Leo." Percy retorted, as he glanced around for his line of laundry.

"Good luck with that-I don't have anything. The time that I spend embarrassing myself on my own makes up for the time that my tightie whities miss out on."

And he was right, the only thing that was hung up for Leo was a few pairs of cargo pants, jeans, a couple of white T-Shirts, and the said tightie whities. Percy nodded once,

"All right, then. Not bad Leo."

He trailed back to his own laundry, and resumed hanging his things. On occasions, Leo would shout some kind of corny joke his way when he spotted a pair of strangely-printed underwear. He let out a sigh of relief when Annabeth came up from below deck, with her own laundry. Percy expected that she would cover for him a little bit, but it was just his luck. She walked across the deck, glanced his laundry up and down once,

"Nice panda underwear," Annabeth teased.  
Leo howled with laughter at the helm as Annabeth shot Percy a victorious grin and walked over to the spot she typically hung her clothing. While they were all still pretty close, there was still the whole boy/girl privacy rule, meaning the teasing usually remained between the opposite genders. Usually.

Percy dropped the article of clothing in his hand onto the deck underneath his feet as he skirted around his clothing that was hanging. He glanced over, and noticed that Leo was still attentively watching from his place at the helm. Percy walked over to Annabeth, who hadn't taken any notice of him, and watched as she pinned her clothing.

"So," Percy began nonchalantly.

Annabeth glanced at him for a brief moment, "So..."

"Want me to help you?" He offered, before somewhat slyly looking for something amongst her clothing to use against her.

"Absolutely not," Annabeth replied with a smirk, "I know what you're trying to do."

"What are you talking about?" Percy replied in mock-cluelessness.

Annabeth planted a hand in his chest, shoving him lightly, "Go on, you've got your own clothing to take care of."

He sighed in defeat and shuffled off to deal with the said clothing.

* * *

It had only seemed like a few hours had passed before the sun had long since finished its descent into the horizon. From all of the things that needed to be done throughout the ship, the day went by like a blur. The Argo II chopped through the waves of the Mediterranean with ease, and the night made it all the more peaceful. But precautions still had to be taken, because for a ship full of demigods, a moment of silence was usually short-lived, and meant something dangerous was coming their way.

Percy sat perched on one of the railings running along the edgings of the Argo II. It was dangerous, yes, but at least they weren't flying thousands of miles above land. If he fell from this height, he would just fall into the ocean, rather than get pancaked. The chill from the night before wasn't as present. If anything, it was quite warm, so Percy had the chance to dress down a little. An ocean breeze rippled past, and he closed his eyes as he took in the smell of the ocean.

"Hey, Panda Pants." Annabeth called as she swung her own legs over the railing. He folded his hand on top of hers,

"Yeah, yeah. I would hold back on that a little bit-you don't know when I might find some incriminating evidence to blackmail you with."

Annabeth merely shrugged, "Alright, then."

She rested her head on the side of his upper arm, and nothing but the sound of the waves and the flapping of the crew's hanging laundry was audible.

"Today was nice," Annabeth commented.

Percy nodded in agreement, "It was. I'm surprised not even a single thing attacked us today."

"And with our luck, you probably just reversed that little miracle," She grumbled.

He sighed, "Ah, well...You know, I can barely remember what it's like to have a normal life."

"Probably because no one has a completely normal life."

"I guess you're right about that. But a life before knowing that I was a demigod. I'm so used to fighting every waking minute, I can hardly imagine being able to just being able to walk or go to the park or do something normal. It's just routine, having to fight monsters constantly. Having a day of chores was close to spending a day in Elysium."

Annabeth didn't make an attempt to reply, and after another stretch of silence, he was ready to push the comment aside. But, like always, she took him by surprise,

"What if you and me could manage to have a normal life after all of this? What if all of us managed to?

"As much as I'd like to believe that's what the case will be after this, I can't. I can't believe it."

"But what if we did?" She further pressed, "What would you do?"

A wave of sickness washed over him at the question. Despite the fact that Annabeth already knew his plans of their future, it wasn't spoken of out loud. But he had to give her an answer.

"I think we both know the answer to that," Was all he said, "Like you said, wait until we get back home…"

"Then we'll see."

* * *

**A/N: I know, it was just kind of a mess of things. I did what I could, but I hope you all enjoyed it nevertheless.**

Happy Halloween!  
**Leaded-Pegasus**


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